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This lemon poppyseed cake is so moist, fluffy, and full of lemon flavor, you won’t believe it is vegan! Topped with a dairy free cream cheese frosting, it’s made without eggs, without milk, and without butter!
Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Cake
We love our healthy lemon recipes around here. Our favorites include lemon loaf, lemon cake, and this healthy lemon poppyseed cake.
This truly is the BEST lemon poppy seed cake. Why? It’s secretly healthy! Like seriously, we have been eating slice after slice for breakfast.
It’s completely vegan and gluten free, and there are instructions included to make it keto and low carb.
The texture of this poppy seed cake is incredible- Moist, fluffy, and with a tender crumb. Taste wise, it’s sweet, tangy and LOADED with lemon flavor. Topped with a creamy frosting, you will be obsessed!
Ingredients to make a lemon poppyseed cake
The Ingredients listed and amounts indicated yield a single layer cake with frosting. If you’d like to make a layer cake, simple double or triple the ingredients. Bake them in 2 or 3 8-inch cake pans.
- All purpose flour– Sift your flour carefully, to ensure there are no clumps. If you’d like this cake to also be gluten free, be sure to use gluten free baking flour (a gluten free flour with added xanthan gum).
- Sweetener of choice– White sugar or a white sugar substitute is best, like monk fruit sweetener. You can use brown sugar or coconut sugar, but your cake will be darker.
- Salt– A must to bring out the sweetness!
- Baking soda– Leavening agent that reacts with the vinegar to replicate the eggs.
- Poppy seeds– A must for a lemon poppy seed cake!
- Vinegar– White vinegar or apple cider vinegar can be used.
- Vanilla extract– A must for any good cake recipe!
- Oil of choice– Use a neutral flavored oil, like canola oil, vegetable oil, or refined coconut oil.
- Lemon juice– Gives a delicious tangy flavor throughout.
- Water– Mixes everything together.
- Yellow food coloring– Optional, but gives the lemon poppy seed cake a gorgeous yellow color.
How to make a healthy lemon poppyseed cake
Start by mixing together your dry ingredients. Next, add the rest of your ingredients, except for your food coloring. Mix well, until combined. Add 2-3 drops yellow food coloring, and mix until incorporated. Transfer the cake batter into an 8-inch cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow the cake to cool completely, before frosting.
Easy Frosting Ideas
- Cashew cream cheese– Ultra creamy and thick, and made with no dairy or refined sugar.
- Cream cheese frosting– The recipe used as pictured in this recipe.
- Powdered sugar– Mix powdered sugar with water or milk, until desired consistency is reached.
Can I make lemon poppy seed muffins?
If you’d like to make this cake as healthy lemon poppy seed muffins, you can easily do that by making the following changes-
- Line a 12-count muffin tin with muffin liners. Distribute the batter amongst the 12-muffin pans.
- Bake the muffins for 17-19 minutes, or until a skewer comes out ‘just’ clean.
- Let the muffins cool in the muffin pan for 10 minutes, before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, frost them.
Can I make this low carb?
To make a keto lemon poppy seed cake, use these ingredients and instructions below.
The ingredients– 1/2 cup coconut flour, 1 cup unsweetened applesauce, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 cup sugar free maple syrup, 1/4 cup almond butter, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon lemon zest, 4 large eggs.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. In a large mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients and mix well. Add the wet ingredients and whisk until fully combined and a smooth batter remains. Transfer to a loaf pan, cake pan or square pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let cool in the cake pan until cool, before frosting.
Tips to make the best cake
- Do not overbake the poppy seed cake, as it will continue to cook as it is cooling. Once a toothpick comes out ‘just’ clean, remove it from the oven.
- Oven makes and models differ. Some may find their cake ready after 30 minutes, or longer. Do the toothpick or skewer test to check!
- Your lemon poppy seed cake must be cooled before frosting. Otherwise, you risk the frosting slipping off.
- For a gluten free lemon poppy seed cake, be sure to use gluten free baking flour.
- For a more pronounced lemon flavor, sub out some of the milk for extra lemon juice.
How to store the cake
- To store: Leftover vegan lemon poppy seed cake should always be kept in a sealable container and stored in the refrigerator. It will keep well for up to 2 weeks.
- To freeze: Place leftover slices of cake in a container and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.
More easy vegan cake recipes
Lemon Poppyseed Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar white or sugar free substitutes * See notes
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon vinegar white or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoon oil vegetable, canola, or any neutral flavored oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 3/4 cup water
- 1-2 drops yellow food coloring
- 1/2 cup cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease an 8-inch cake pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients and mix well. Add your wet ingredients, except for the yellow food coloring. Mix everything together. Add your yellow food coloring, and mix until incorporated.
- Transfer the cake batter into the lined pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely, before frosting.
I have four kiddos with lots of food allergies and a personal obsession with all things lemon and poppy seed so this was a massive success! However, I have a question for you, what is the purpose of the nut butter in the recipe? We used sunflower butter and the flavor of it overpowered the wonderful lemon. My daughter gobbled it up but I’m wondering if I could use something else that is not an allergen that doesn’t overpower the fresh lemon flavor. Thanks!!
Hi Lydia! I like adding nut butter as it really elevates the flavor profile, and avoids them from being too gummy or cake-y- I’ve also found the added fat to help with the staying power. You could use coconut oil if you don’t want the overpowering flavor 🙂
Thank you! I’ll try it with homemade hemp seed butter. I thought it might be for binding purposes which is why I asked! Thank you!! My family enjoys all of the recipes we have tried from your blog. Thank you for what you do!
Lydia, this is so kind of you 🙂 I hope you and your family continue to enjoy them 🙂
I just made the GF version of this, with some substitutions. Always with the substitutions…. Less sugar, lemon extract instead of vanilla extract, and chia seeds instead of poppy seeds because that’s what I had. Very tasty! Thank you! I was dubious of the nut butter, but you really can’t taste it. More to the point, my super taster of a kiddo couldn’t taste it either.
Thanks SO much for the feedback, Sue- I appreciate it- so glad that the chia seeds kept the texture too!
This looks yummy! What size pan would suit this recipe? I have more than one size loaf pan in my cupboard.
Hi Kerrilyn! I personally prefer smaller pans as I love thicker cake slices 🙂
Thanks Arman! Thanks for your reply! I’m going to make this cake today. ?
Hi – this looks awesome! I plan on making it, but I was just wondering – I have PCOS, and so would like to make it as low-sugar and high-protein as possible. Would the gluten-free or paleo option suit me better? Thanks!
Hi Kait- I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with PCOS so I’m not sure- It’s probably best to seek out a medical professional 🙂
Just delcious. Amything lemon, one of my faves this. Thanks .
Simon
I lovelovelove lemon poppy seed and I’ve been looking for a HEALTHY, vegan breakfast muffin option (I’m hard to please, don’t judge haha). Do you think this recipe would be suitable for muffins? If so, how many would it yield? Like a dozen maybe? You’re the best!
Greetings from Denmark
Hi Cecilie!
Hahaha no worries at all! It would totally work as muffins, I’m not sure how many though!
Enjoy!
Well…I’m italian and I’ve fibromyalgia, so I can’t eat gluten and nightshades. I’m eating your AMAZING lemon poppyseed cake right now and I’m so happy I can’t tell *_*. I’ve used Werz glutenfree mix insted of rolled glutenfree oats flour because my mixer is broken and I couldn’t ground them. And your cake is D E L I C I O U S. My boyfriend loves it. And usually he doesn’t like sweets. I need to do the frosting tomorrow, but I don’t know if the cake will be still there. I’m afraid I’m gonna eat it all right now :D. Thank you very much! <3
Cloe!!!! 😀 Bongiorno!
Thanks so much for trying it out- I’m glad you and your boyfriend both enjoyed it! 🙂
Where do you find coconut butter? And what brand do you use?
Thanks
Hi Kathleen! I use Amazon to order it, and the brand I prefer is Coconut manna 🙂
This was delicious! I added blueberries to it. AMAZING. I made the paleo version and it did take 50 minutes to bake, I used a bread loaf tin. I am sad to say that I did not like the protein frosting option nor did I enjoy the coconut butter frosting option. I enjoyed this with out frosting thought with a cup of earl grey tea. This was quite sweet. Next time I make I think I will omit the maple syrup and opt for tiny bit more lemon flavor. I do not eat processed foods or sugars at all or pre packaged food and I do not eat sweets often so I think I am just sensitive to sweet things.
Hi Elisa! Thanks so much for the feedback- Sorry you didn’t like either of the frostings- I guess if you aren’t too big a fan of super sweet recipes, it’s totally not needed 🙂
This looks delicious! I’m just wondering – what brand of coconut palm sugar do you use? I use Wholesome, but it usually turns my recipes an unappetizing shade of brown (especially for a lemon dessert :)). How do you keep the cake such a nice lemony color? Is there any way to prevent it from turning brown?
Hi there! I usually use Nutiva, but for these recipes, I used norbu (as pictured), which is a granulated monk fruit sweetener 🙂
Is ‘T’ tablespoon or teaspoon?
Hi Sharon! 🙂 That is correct!
lol – you didn’t actually state which one it was – there’s a big difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon.
or does it mean one sometimes and the other at other times, and how do I know which one?
Oh my I’m so sorry! Tablespoon!!!!
haha, thank you Arman. I actually just read through all the comments to see if it was in there, and found it just as you posted. Can’t wait to try this, and I think I’ll try another version with oranges instead of lemons. LOVE orange and poppy seed!
vegan or paleo? which should i try first lol…. yum!!!
Monica! You should try both! 🙂
I did the first recipe with some little changes (rapadura sugar, lemon essential oil). So it’s brown but DE-LI-CIOUS!!
I did small cakes instead of a big one, but 1/4 broke when I took them out of the tin. Maybe it wouldn’t happen with 2 eggs? What do you think?
Hi Odile! So glad you enjoyed it!
Sorry to hear making them smaller broke- I would try perhaps adding a teaspoon or two or flaxmeal?
Hello (i’m frech sorry if it isn’t a good english) for the paleo version there isn’t milk in the list ! Is it normal or how much we need ?
Hi Sandra! You don’t need any milk in the paleo option- The eggs work as the replacement for moisture, along with the applesauce.